Can Wrigley deal get done?

The Ricketts family has been angling to fix aging Wrigley Field since buying the Cubs in 2009, only to see plan after plan of how to pay for improvements fail amid political considerations and public relations gaffes.

Now after months of behind-the-scenes talks between team officials and City Hall, the latest plan to spend $300 million repairing the historic ballpark emerged this week, creating a sense of momentum even as competing interests continue to try to wring out the best deal.

The Ricketts family wants new advertising signs, more night games and concerts and permission to hold street fairs around the park to raise the money to pay for the rehab themselves. Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants no taxpayer money involved. Rooftop club owners don't want anything that would block their views and ruin a 20-year deal struck with the team. The local alderman and residents want to preserve quality of life.

Sources close to the negotiations say there could be something for everyone in the plan, but concessions will have to be made to get over the hump.

The talks have placed Emanuel in the role of a deal broker. The mayor is putting the pressure on publicly, saying this week he's "asked all the parties involved to finish this up." For Emanuel, getting a Wrigley renovation done, especially without tax money, would be a major coup two years into his tenure. Not only would it further burnish his image as a mayor rebuilding the city, Emanuel will have accomplished what his predecessor could not.

To that end, Emanuel is prodding all parties to move quickly, said a source in the mayor's office. Emanuel believes there's a good shot at bringing all sides together and thinks 44th Ward Ald. Tom Tunney can play a key role in making that happen, the source said.

Emanuel also is hoping he doesn't have to take a more aggressive stance and can avoid pushing through a deal that doesn't have the backing of all interest groups, the source added.

New signs are a sticking point. Tunney has come out against more advertising signs if they block views from neighboring rooftops. Owners of the rooftop businesses, who share a portion of their ticket sales with the club, are afraid the Cubs' new plan will put them out of business.

For its part, the team says renovations are necessary to modernize the stadium, protect fans from the crumbling concrete and generate more money to help win an elusive World Series.

The relationship between the Ricketts family and the rooftop owners became strained soon after the family bought the team from Tribune Co., parent of the Chicago Tribune, for about $800 million. Over the objections of the rooftop owners, the Cubs gained city approval in 2010 to install a Toyota sign behind the left-field bleachers.

Another contentious issue: more night games and concerts.

The Cubs are currently limited to 30 night games a year. The team is looking for as many as 11 more. Neighborhood groups are willing to allow three more.

The team can hold three concerts, but wants more. Neighborhood groups say one additional concert would be OK.

Although the additional night games are considered a part of the larger discussion on renovating Wrigley, the mayor is open to considering the issue as early as next month because of the scheduling needs of Major League Baseball, the administration source said. Tunney said he would support more night games if the team addresses the quality-of-life issues such as traffic congestion.

That a Cubs deal is even being talked about, much less optimistically, is quite a turnaround. In 2010, the owners floated a proposal for the state to issue $300 million in bonds that would be backed by a tax Cubs fans pay on each ticket.

Then-Mayor Richard Daley never supported the idea, and Emanuel was cool to the proposal because the city budget faced big shortfalls in a weak economy.

In May, Emanuel cut off communication with Cubs Chairman Tom Ricketts when reports surfaced that patriarch Joe Ricketts was pitched on a racially tinged political attack ad against the re-election of President Barack Obama, Emanuel's old boss.

But back-channel talks continued. The breakthrough came when the team removed taxpayer funding from the equation — Emanuel viewed it as an opportunity that needed to be grabbed, the administration source said.

And so last weekend, Tom Ricketts floated the new plan before a cheering Cubs Convention. Communication between the Cubs and Emanuel's office, as well as between the Cubs and the community, has improved from early in the mayor's tenure — so much so that Emanuel and Tom Ricketts spoke Tuesday, the source said.

The debate raises larger policy issues about how much restraint should government place on a commercial enterprise that benefits from its distinctive urban setting but also benefits the city. Ricketts made a plea at the convention for more freedom.